Ida P Rolf was born in the Bronx, New York
City in 1896. She graduated from Barnard College in 1916, received her
Ph.D. from Columbia University and was hired by the Rockefeller Institute
(now Rockefeller University) as a Research Associate. It was at the Rockefeller
Institute that she began her research on fascia (connective tissue), which
was later to form the basis of Structural Integration.

In the early 1920s Dr Rolf briefly moved to Switzerland to study physics
and mathematics and while in Zurich she also studied homeopathy. During the
1920s she also studied osteopathy, yoga and eastern philosophy. Later she
also explored the Alexander Technique and the General Semantics of Alfred
Korzybski. All this study, particularly yoga, formed the basis of her work
which began on an experimental basis. That is, various people came to Dr Rolf
and she would ‘experiment’, using her knowledge and intuition
to help them. As she was slowly concentrating her ideas about the work, Dr
Rolf created a teaching format for her work which consisted of a series of
ten sessions to balance the body in gravity.

Dr Rolf taught her first class
mainly to a group of osteopaths. It was held in Tunbridge Wells, England
in the early 1950s. In the 1950s she taught various groups of chiropractors
and osteopaths around the USA until she

realized these students were not the appropriate
ones to carry on her work.

In the mid-1960s she met Dr Fritz Perls at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur,
California. Perls was amazed by the power of her work and credited Dr Rolf
with adding many years to his life. Thanks to the persistence and insistence
of Fritz Perls, Ida Rolf found herself teaching on a regular basis at the
Esalen Institute.

Dr Rolf called her work Structural Integration but other people nicknamed
it Rolfing® and were calling the practitioners of Structural
Integration, Rolfers. Eventually Dr Rolf set up a formal organisation; the
Guild for Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado (USA). There was disagreement
by the faculty of the Guild on how to proceed with Dr Rolf’s work when
she died in 1979. This in effect caused a split, ending in two organisations.
The Guild of Structural Integration and The Rolf Institute. Both of these
organisations continue to teach and actively strive to enhance Dr Rolf’s
work.